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Wiring
formers and protectors for the new Range Rover.
Brief:
- Parts must fit into
pre-designated areas
- Parts must be plastic
injection moulded in one piece.
- They must have the
minimum number of fixing points but still be attached
securely.
- They must fit both
right hand drive and left hand drive cars to reduce tooling
costs.
- The tooling to
produce them must simple, will few side actions to reduce
costs..
- They must
secure the wiring loom quickly and easily.

Our
initial designs fulfilled all
the criteria and was accepted by our customer with almost no
alterations. The tooling was made with no modifications
quickly and
easily and we have not to date had any modifications to the
designs whatsoever, proving that all the parts are
functioning as they should.
The part shown on the right
included some simple yet novel snap-in
tabs that, because of the design, where easy to include in the tooling.
These secure the wiring quickly and easily and have proved to be a
great success.

A
requirement for the part
on the left was to include some clip fixings to attach
standard
connectors. We were supplied data for the standard fixings but it was
explained to us that these fixings, although they had been in common
use for
some time, were not
ideal as they allowed the connectors to flap about and potentially
cause rattles and noise.
Our
tooling expertise showed us that a simple modification to
the
design would strengthen the clips substantially and cure the problems.
I
believe that this design has now been adopted as the standard.
This
illustrates that it is often the simple solutions that reap the
most benefits and a fresh common-sense approach to problems
can
often find an easy and quick solution.
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